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Literacy centers, (also referred to as stations), can serve as the wonderful venues for collaborative discussion of how our culture uses written and spoken language. In other words, our grammar. Now, the way we colloquially use the term grammar in teaching circles is not solely in terms of the function of words and syntax (order) within the context of our culture. Teachers use grammar to refer to sentence structure, parts of speech, parts of a sentence (subjects, objects, predicates, phrases, clauses, etc.), usage (including non-standard forms), capitalization, punctuation, and more. In sum, grammar is a catch-all term for the rules and style of our language. The study of grammar provides teachers and their students with a common language of instruction.

Over the years, as an author of numerous grammar programs and a grammar handbook/style manual, I’ve often been rhetorically questioned along the lines of “Hasn’t research constantly proven that direct instruction of grammar yields no measurable improvement in students’ writing or speaking?”

Depending upon my mood, I usually respond by asking what the questioner means by grammar. The responses vary, but the questioner always moves the discussion to how grammar is taught: a completely separate issue in my view. In my article titled “The Great Grammar Debate,” I summarize the how positions as those favoring a part to whole inductive approach (grammar is taught) and a whole to part deductive approach (grammar is caught).

Even the most ardent critics of teaching grammar deductively agree that oral language acquisition is the greatest contributor to our knowledge of grammar, and even our correct usage. Even the most ardent critics of teaching grammar inductively agree that some knowledge of how our language is put together and used within our culture should inform writing and speaking. Indeed, my view is that grammar should be both caught and taught. I tend to be a both-and teacher.

However, to respond to the how grammar should be taught question, I would argue that the best instructional format for learning and exploring the application of grammar in the context of writing, speaking, and reading is in literacy centers. In literacy centers, students use language to learn language. In a didactic approach to grammar instruction, such as Daily Oral Language, students don’t have the social context to provide immediate feedback to learning, ask questions, or discuss.

A GRAMMAR LITERACY CENTER LESSON EXAMPLE

If learning about adverbs, students will need to know their definition, be able to identify adverbs, apply adverbs properly in writing and speaking, and analyze the author’s use of adverbs in the assigned reading. Notice that the first two tasks follow the inductive approach to grammar acquisition, while the last two tasks follow the deductive approach.

A literacy center grammar lesson could include the following:

Remember that an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb and answers What degree? How? Where? or When? Any part of speech can serve as an adverb. Let’s identify these four types of adverbs and categorize them from this short reading selection.

Did you know that we always almost use adverbs in a certain adverb order? Sounds funny, doesn’t it? This sounds better: Did you know that we almost always use adverbs in a certain adverb order? The adverb, almost, is a What Degree? adverb; the adverb, always, is a When? adverb. When we write or say a sentence with multiple adverbs, we tend to use them in this order: What degree? How? Where? or When?

Let’s practice together revising these sentences according to the What degree? How? Where? or When? adverb order. Check out the writer’s use of multiple adverbs in this article. Help each other circle the adverbs. Discussion: When does she follow the rule and when does she break the rule regarding adverb order? Why did she choose to break the rule?

The next lesson could involve adverb order in terms of placing shorter adverbial phrases in front of longer ones. Example: We ran more slowly, yet more purposefully.

The following lesson could involve adverb order in terms of placing specific adverbs before general ones. Example: We ran to the corner, then everywhere.

See how the collaborative nature of literacy centers is an effective means of learning and applying grammar? Want to try this approach to grammar instruction?

The author’s Academic Language Conventions Literacy Center provides 56 Common Core-aligned grammar and mechanics lessons designed for literacy centers. Plus, the author has a separate remedial grammar, usage, and mechanics literacy center to help your students catch up while they keep up with grade-level instruction. Check out these programs HERE.

But wait. I’m so confident that teachers will recognize the quality of design and content when they see these grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 grammar centers that I’m offering the entire first month-long unit of the Academic Literacy Centers BUNDLE (all six centers) free of charge for you to test-drive. If you love them all (you just might), buy the full-year Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE or mix and match by buying the full-year individual centers. I’ve also attached an extensive preview of the Remedial Literacy Centers at the end of the unit for you to check out. Note: Please don’t post this free unit online or share with other teachers.

The individual centers and BUNDLES are available for sale on my Teachers Pay Teachers store and on www.penningtonpublishing.com (use discount code 3716 for 10% off at check-out).

Here’s what you will get in this free, one-month six-center Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE unit (255 pages plus the Remedial Literacy Center preview) sent as a download via email:

Academic Literacy Centers FREE Unit

Reading: Eight leveled expository reading fluency articles with word counts and timing chart. Eight corresponding comprehension worksheets with vocabulary in context. (The only components I can’t give you for this free sample are the modeled YouTube readings at three different reading speeds. You get access to these 129 readings with the paid version of the individual center or the BUNDLE.)

Spelling and Syllabication: Four spelling sorts based upon grade-level conventional spelling rules and four syllable worksheets

Study Skills: Eight self-assessment, study skills, reflection lessons: How to Get Motivated, How to Prevent Procrastination, How to Set Goals, How to Develop a Positive Mental Attitude, How to Create a Home Study Environment, How to Get Organized for Homework, How to Complete a Daily Review, How to Manage Time for Homework

Prefer to see the extensive previews of each books before you download? Click HERE.

Check out Pennington Publishing articles on using literacy centers HERE.

You and your students will love these centers! Pick your grade level and get started with your month-long test-drive. Tell a colleague and earn a nice gift upon that colleague’s purchase of one of our BUNDLES!

Literacy centers, or stations, are ideal instructional strategies for some writing instruction and practice. As much as teachers love literacy centers (I do!), some instruction and practice is just not conducive to centers. Most teachers and professional writers would agree that drafting is a solitary affair between writer and the imagination. In the classic writing process stages, drafting follows pre-writing. Collaborative pre-writing (including research, discussion, organization, connection to prior knowledge, etc.) can certainly work well in the social atmosphere of literacy centers or cooperative groups. However, the pencil to paper or fingers to keyboard task of generating meaning seems to be part of the magic best suited for the magician alone.

Following drafting, the response-revision-editing-publication steps of the writing process work best in the social context of the classroom with student-student and student-teacher interactions. Whether using a writers workshop model or not, literacy centers can be beneficial instructional settings for working with the first draft.

Five Effective Uses of Literacy Centers for Writing Instruction

1. Response Activities

In the early years (1970s) of the National Writing Project and the popularization of teaching the writing process in schools, the response step was emphasized and valued as a necessary follow-up to the draft. Subsequently, more and more writing process charts and instructional approaches (writers workshop, 6 + 1 traits, Step up to Writing) tended to ignore this step. Some of the rationale for abandoning the response step seems to make sense. After all, student response groups can turn into mutual admiration societies (“It’s great. I wouldn’t change a thing.”) Or the blind leading the blind. Or crushing Yelp reviews of one star (sometimes as payback for past negative reviews). After all, we do teach kids.

However, if given concrete, objective “what to look for” response tasks dealing with what is said, response groups can be an essential step before writing revision. Additionally, most teachers find that guided response group tasks work efficiently to help writers decided what to keep and what to throw out. It’s all about waste management. Instead of spending excessive time analyzing and directing the trash disposal in terms of following the writing prompts, writing coherence, and unity, the teacher can reasonably expect that response groups can, at a minimum, sort the trash into recyclables, non-green waste, and compost. To mix metaphors, “Many hands make light work.”

2. Guided Revision

If well-designed response activities, used within literacy centers, can provide useful feedback to the writer regarding what is said in the draft and also save the teacher time dealing with the garbage, then well-designed guided revision tasks can help the writer work with how it is said. Guided revision is the back and forth discussion within the center regarding how the writer interacts with the reader.

For example, sentence structure and length is always a great guided revision task. It provides objective criteria: How many short sentences and long sentences are in the body paragraphs? How many simple sentences, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences are in the opening of the story? Are there any sections with three simple sentence in a row? Sections with two complex or compound-complex sentences back-to-back?

Or another example: sentence variety. How many sentences begin with the subject? How many passive voice sentences are there?

Or (from the author’s grammar handbook (see below):

e29Get more specific.The support evidence is too general. Add more specific evidence by including Fact, Example, Statistic, Comparison, Quote from an Authority, Logic, Experience, or Counter-Argument/Refutation. FE SCALE CR

3. Guided Editing

Focusing on mistakes in word choice, grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. can work well in literacy centers, but only if resources are made available and the editing is guided by discrete tasks.

The author provides a nice resource for student and teacher editing and revision in a grammar handbook: The Pennington Manual of Style provides 438 categorized comments which both literacy center partners and teachers can automatically insert into Windows Microsoft Word and/or downloaded into Google Docs or simply copied and pasted (for Windows and Mac users) as guided editing documents. The comments identify what is wrong, why is it wrong, and how to fix it.

For example, many students overuse “to be” verbs in both expository and narrative compositions:

Students need both the know how and tools to work with their own writing. If students don’t know that constantly beginning sentences with “There are,” “Here is,” “It was,” is poor writing style, unnecessary, and irritating to their audience, they will continue using these expletives. Literacy centers provide the collaborative experience for students to learn how to revise sentences. The author’s Writing Academic Literacy Center provides 56 mini-lessons for grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (Get a FREE one-month unit below to test-drive this program) to help students learn what to revise and how to do so.

5. Literary Response to Mentor Texts

Literacy centers help students borrow each other’s brains to solve problems, ask questions, understand complex ideas, come up with solutions, and apply what has been learned. However, if students only draw water from the same well (each other) the writing results and production will stagnate. Good writers build upon the broad shoulders of better writers. Using grade-appropriate mentor texts can stimulate new ways at looking at things. When connected to interpretive and analytical writing tasks, student writers are exposed to new ideas and new ways of saying these ideas.

The author’s Writing Academic Literacy Center provides 56 mini-lessons featuring short mentor texts and response activities. The response activities requires students to collaboratively alter the rhetorical stance of their responses in terms of voice, audience, purpose, and form). These brain-stretching mini-lessons will significantly improve student writing flexibility, maturity, and style.

I’m so confident that teachers will recognize the quality of design and content when they see these grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 writing centers that I’m offering the entire first month-long unit of the Academic Literacy Centers BUNDLE (all six centers) free of charge for you to test-drive. If you love them all (you just might), buy the full-year Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE or mix and match by buying the full-year individual centers. I’ve also attached an extensive preview of the Remedial Literacy Centers at the end of the unit for you to check out. Note: Please don’t post this free unit online or share with other teachers.

The individual centers and BUNDLES are available for sale on my Teachers Pay Teachers store and on www.penningtonpublishing.com (use discount code 3716 for 10% off at check-out).

Here’s what you will get in this free, one-month six-center Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE unit (255 pages plus the Remedial Literacy Center preview) sent as a download via email:

Academic Literacy Centers FREE Unit

Reading: Eight leveled expository reading fluency articles with word counts and timing chart. Eight corresponding comprehension worksheets with vocabulary in context. (The only components I can’t give you for this free sample are the modeled YouTube readings at three different reading speeds. You get access to these 129 readings with the paid version of the individual center or the BUNDLE.)

Spelling and Syllabication: Four spelling sorts based upon grade-level conventional spelling rules and four syllable worksheets

Study Skills: Eight self-assessment, study skills, reflection lessons: How to Get Motivated, How to Prevent Procrastination, How to Set Goals, How to Develop a Positive Mental Attitude, How to Create a Home Study Environment, How to Get Organized for Homework, How to Complete a Daily Review, How to Manage Time for Homework

Prefer to see the extensive previews of each books before you download? Click HERE.

Check out Pennington Publishing articles on using literacy centers HERE.

You and your students will love these centers! Pick your grade level and get started with your month-long test-drive. Tell a colleague and earn a nice gift upon that colleague’s purchase of one of our BUNDLES!

Literacy centers, or stations, provide an ideal instructional setting for reading skill and strategy acquisition and practice. However, a few caveats should also be included in our discussion about how to teach reading in literacy centers.

Six Effective Uses of Literacy Centers for Reading Instruction

1. Independent Reading

Independent reading can work well within literacy centers if there is accountability. All too often, children and young adults reading independently in an independent reading station are not reading at all. I find that peer book clubs with a literature circle model provides appropriate accountability. Literary response journals can also hold students accountable. Finally, I find paired discussions of what has been read, using my SCRIP Comprehension Strategy Questions keep students focused on comprehension during independent reading.

I suggest guided choice, rather than free choice reading in these centers. Students need to read at their challenge levels. Train your students to select books by word recognition… don’t bother with Lexiles or other placement criteria such as with the Accelerated Reader program. See “How to Select Books for Independent Reading” for help.

2. Reading Fluency Practice

Students can be assigned to homogeneous or heterogeneous fluency groups to practice repeated readings along with modeled readings at their reading grade levels and at their challenge speeds.

The Reading Academic Literacy Center provides 43 leveled expository reading fluency articles with word counts and timing charts. Each article is leveled in a unique pyramid design, beginning at third grade level and ending at seventh grade level to push students to higher level sentence structure, number of syllables, and more difficult vocabulary as they read. The modeled readings are provided on YouTube at three different reading speeds. You get access to these 129 readings with the paid version of the individual Reading Academic Literacy Center or the BUNDLE.)

The Reading Academic Literacy Center also provides the same articles as the reading fluencies described above as comprehension worksheets. Each comprehension worksheet on the habitat, family, unique characteristics, predator-prey relationships, and endangerment status of 43 animals includes vocabulary in context and five higher level comprehension questions. Answers included, of course. See “How to Teach Reading Comprehension” for help.

4. Phonics

Using effective diagnostic assessments, teachers can fill the phonics gaps to improve decoding skills and multi-syllabic fluency. The Phonics Literacy Center provides 35 lessons with 7 workshops. Each workshop includes a formative assessment. The teacher introduces the lesson with phonics game cards (included in the center) and students work independently and collaboratively to learn the focus phonics skills.

5. Guided Reading

Many teachers use literacy centers so they can give students meaningful work to accomplish while they pull guided reading groups. Generally speaking, most reading specialists (such as Yours Truly) advocate using guided reading groups for at least two days per week. Again, word recognition can be used to determine ability leveled groups. Also, effective diagnostic assessments can be given to place students into guided reading groups based upon skill deficits. For example, the 56 Sam and Friends Guided Reading Phonics Books are decodable books designed with teenage cartoon characters and plots for older readers who struggle with decoding and sight words. Word fluencies and five comprehension questions are included in each Sam book.

My name is Mark Pennington. I’m a seventh grade ELA teacher and reading specialist. I’ve just released both my six Academic Literacy Centers and four Remedial Literacy Centers for grades 4‒8 teachers. Each of these full-year, twice-per-week, twenty-minutes-per-station programs have been specifically designed to minimize prep, correction, clean-up, and behavioral management issues. I’ve also put together the six Academic Literacy Centers and four Remedial Literacy Centers as value-priced BUNDLES.

I’m so confident that teachers will recognize the quality of design and content when they see these grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 centers that I’m offering the entire first month-long unit of the Academic Literacy Centers BUNDLE (all six centers) free of charge for you to test-drive. If you love them all (you just might), buy the full-year Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE or mix and match by buying the full-year individual centers. I’ve also attached an extensive preview of the Remedial Literacy Centers at the end of the unit for you to check out. Note: Please don’t post this free unit online or share with other teachers.

The individual centers and BUNDLES are available for sale on my Teachers Pay Teachers store and on www.penningtonpublishing.com (use discount code 3716 for 10% off at check-out).

Here’s what you will get in this free, one-month six-center Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE unit (255 pages plus the Remedial Literacy Center preview) sent as a download via email:

Academic Literacy Centers FREE Unit

Reading: Eight leveled expository reading fluency articles with word counts and timing chart. Eight corresponding comprehension worksheets with vocabulary in context. (The only components I can’t give you for this free sample are the modeled YouTube readings at three different reading speeds. You get access to these 129 readings with the paid version of the individual center or the BUNDLE.)

Spelling and Syllabication: Four spelling sorts based upon grade-level conventional spelling rules and four syllable worksheets

Study Skills: Eight self-assessment, study skills, reflection lessons: How to Get Motivated, How to Prevent Procrastination, How to Set Goals, How to Develop a Positive Mental Attitude, How to Create a Home Study Environment, How to Get Organized for Homework, How to Complete a Daily Review, How to Manage Time for Homework

Prefer to see the extensive previews of each books before you download? Click HERE.

Check out Pennington Publishing articles on using literacy centers HERE.

You and your students will love these centers! Pick your grade level and get started with your month-long test-drive. Tell a colleague and earn a nice gift upon that colleague’s purchase of one of our BUNDLES!

I’ve just released both my six Academic Literacy Centers and four Remedial Literacy Centers for grades 4‒8 teachers. Each of these full-year, twice-per-week, twenty-minutes-per-station programs have been specifically designed to minimize prep, correction, clean-up, and behavioral management issues. I’ve also put together the six Academic Literacy Centers and four Remedial Literacy Centers as value-priced BUNDLES.

Academic Literacy Centers Grades 4-8 BUNDLES

I’m so confident that teachers will recognize the quality of design and content when they see these grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 centers that I’m offering the entire first month-long unit of the Academic Literacy Centers BUNDLE (all six centers) free of charge for you to test-drive. If you love them all (you just might), buy the full-year Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE or mix and match by buying the full-year individual centers. I’ve also attached an extensive preview of the Remedial Literacy Centers at the end of the unit for you to check out. Note: Please don’t post this free unit online or share with other teachers.

The individual centers and BUNDLES are available for sale on my Teachers Pay Teachers store and on www.penningtonpublishing.com (use discount code 3716 for 10% off at check-out). All 6 grade-level Academic Literacy Centers and all 4 Remedial Literacy Centers work nicely with the 10 literacy center rotations which you will see in your free download. Each rotation reflects four-days-per-week centers with 40, 60, 80, and 100-minute class time allocations. This is a flexible program; pick what works best for you and your students.

Here’s what you will get in this free, one-month six-center Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE unit (255 pages plus the Remedial Literacy Center preview) sent as a download via email:

Academic Literacy Centers FREE Unit

Reading: Eight leveled expository reading fluency articles with word counts and timing chart. Eight corresponding comprehension worksheets with vocabulary in context. (The only components I can’t give you for this free sample are the modeled YouTube readings at three different reading speeds. You get access to these 129 readings with the paid version of the individual center or the BUNDLE.)

Spelling and Syllabication: Four spelling sorts based upon grade-level conventional spelling rules and four syllable worksheets

Study Skills: Eight self-assessment, study skills, reflection lessons: How to Get Motivated, How to Prevent Procrastination, How to Set Goals, How to Develop a Positive Mental Attitude, How to Create a Home Study Environment, How to Get Organized for Homework, How to Complete a Daily Review, How to Manage Time for Homework

Prefer to see the extensive previews of each books before you download? Click HERE.

Check out Pennington Publishing articles on using literacy centers HERE.

FAQs

Can I set up, tear down, and move these centers quickly? Yes. Set up and tear down only take a few minutes. Perfect if you share a classroom or move to another classroom.

Are there literacy center signs? Yes, they are provided in both color and black and white and are formatted for both pocket charts and center display.

Are there directions for each lesson and activity? Yes. There are longer teacher directions and shorter student directions on the literacy center task cards (provided in both color and black and white).

Do the literacy centers have the same instructional procedures for each lesson and activity? Yes. Read the directions and model the first activity or lesson for each literacy center once and your students will be able to work independently thereafter.

Are there answers for all the literacy center lessons and activities? Yes, except for open-ended thinking, free-response questions.

How much correction is there? Plenty, but your students will do all the correcting. Answers are provided with each task. Students learn from their own mistakes.

Can I add my own centers, such as guided reading, independent reading, or computers? Yes, and Remember that I also provide four additional remedial literacy centers: spelling, grammar, usage, and mechanics, phonics, and the Sam and Friends Guided Reading Phonics Books.

You and your students will love these centers! Pick your grade level and get started with your month-long test-drive. Tell a colleague and earn a nice gift upon that colleague’s purchase of one of our BUNDLES!